Tribune News Services

3:05 p.m. CST, December 26, 2011

CARACAS, Venezuela — Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba has been suspended from Venezuela’s professional baseball league for 66 games for striking an umpire.

Torrealba was expelled from a game on Friday after the incident. He argued with the home-plate umpire after striking out, then angrily put a hand to the umpire’s mask and shoved him.

League president Jose Grasso Vecchio called Torrealba’s behavior unacceptable, saying it violated the league’s rules.

Torrealba plays for the Caracas Lions when not playing in Major League Baseball. His agent, Melvin Roman, said Torrealba acknowledges that he got carried away in the heat of the moment.

ARLINGTON, Texas, Nov. 29 (UPI) — The Texas Rangers said Tuesday they have hired former major league pitching great Greg Maddux as a special assistant to the general manager.

The American League champion Rangers hired Maddux away from the Chicago Cubs, where he had held a similar position for two years under since-fired GM Jim Hendry.

Maddux, 45, a four-time Cy Young Award winner, will be reunited with his brother Mike in Texas, where the latter is the pitching coach under Manager Ron Washington.

“We’re excited to add Greg to our group and look forward to him contributing to the development of our young pitchers,” Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels said.

Greg Maddux will be an instructor for both the minor and major league staffs during spring training. He will also work with the Rangers’ farm clubs during the regular season, Daniels indicated.

Former Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, who allegedly misdirected millions of dollars from the team. cc/ma/Moses Almos UPI 

DALLAS, Aug. 16 (UPI) — Former Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks misdirected tens of millions of dollars from the team to acquire what are now profitable parking lots, a lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit, filed Monday by the team’s post-bankruptcy administrator, accuses Hicks of using money from the franchise to acquire the lots near Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and Cowboys Stadium, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Hicks also forced the Rangers to spend at least $18 million on parking lots and roads instead of financing deferred compensation for players, as required by Major League Baseball, said Alan Jacobs, the administrator charged with disbursing assets from the bankruptcy sale,

A total of $30.5 million was misdirected, according to lawsuit, filed in the 116th state District Court in Dallas.

The suit says financial statements released by Hicks hid a funding shortfall.

The Star-Telegram said Hicks’ Ballpark Real Estate takes in several million dollars a year in parking revenue near Cowboys Stadium and could be worth an additional $100 million “if Hicks is successful in extorting additional parking revenue from the Texas Rangers’ new owner and the team’s fans.”

Hicks spokeswoman Lisa LeMaster labeled the lawsuit’s claims baseless and pointed to a “bizarre flip-flop” by the Rangers’ major creditors, including hedge funds that bought the team’s debt.

“We welcome the opportunity to challenge these allegations in court,” LeMaster said.

The Rangers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2010 while Hicks owned the team after his company defaulted on bank loans. The team was sold in 2010 for $593 million in a bankruptcy auction to a group including Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher.

Note: There will be no “From the Clubhouse” story today, as the Rangers kept the clubhouse closed until 5:30 p.m. to have a team meeting regarding Bosley’s dismissal.

ARLINGTON — The Rangers haven’t struggled to score this year. They rank sixth in Major League Baseball in runs and hits, and fourth in batting average. So it may come as a surprise to some that Thad Bosley, the club’s hitting coach, was relieved of his duties Wednesday.

Texas general manager Jon Daniels said the team “felt like the fit wasn’t right” for Bosley in Arlington.

“It’s nothing about Thad’s credentials, work ethic or what he did,” Daniels said. “Sometimes the time and place aren’t right, and we felt like that was the case and we felt like a different fit may be better for the club going forward.”

The Rangers have appointed Scott Coolbaugh, the hitting coach at Triple-A Round Rock, to be the team’s new Major League hitting coach effective immediately. He is expected to join the club for tonight’s game with the Detroit Tigers.

Rangers manager Ron Washington said Coolbaugh was “sharp” and he “didn’t expect the club to miss a beat.”

“We felt like we needed to do what was best for us to move forward, and that’s what we did,” Washington said.

Daniels said the decision wasn’t made based on any facet of the Rangers’ hitting or individual moment, and Washington said he hadn’t yet had a chance to talk to the players about the change. The skipper avoided a question about his feelings regarding the move, saying he wanted to keep his personal relationship with Bosley out of the discussion.

“I think whatever reactions we have, we’ll keep [them] inside the clubhouse,” Washington said.

Bosley was in his first season with the Rangers after being appointed as the Major League Hitting Coach in November 2010.

Coolbaugh is in his fifth season as a hitting instructor in the Texas organization, and his third at the Triple-A level. Daniels said he expects the same “team-first offense [Washington] has talked about for years” with the players under Coolbaugh’s tutelage.

“[Coolbaugh] has a familiarity with a lot of our guys, a familiarity with our program and what [Washington] expects — he’s been in spring training with him for a number of years,” Daniels said.

Rangers Minor League Hitting Coordinator Mike Boulanger will assume the hitting coach duties at Round Rock.

June 7, 2011

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Left-handed pitcher Mike Mason was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 23^rd round with the 714^th overall pick on day two of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft. 

Mason joins fellow southpaw Greg Williams on the Rangers draft board in 2011 and marks the third Thundering Herd player drafted by an American League West squad thus far.  Rhett Stafford was picked by the Oakland Athletics a round prior to Mason.

Mason served as the Saturday starter for Marshall over the past two seasons and produced a breakout year in 2011.  The lefty finished his junior campaign with an even 3-3 record, firing a team-best 78.1 innings with 65 strikeouts.  He surpassed the 100-strikeout plateau for his career and collected 157 over the past three years with the Herd.

The lefty collected four quality starts as a junior, including a dominating performance against Houston.  In the no decision, the Maumee, Ohio native tied a career-high with 7.1 innings, giving up two earned runs, while fanning eight and not walking a batter.  Last season, Mason fanned ten batters against Southern Miss, which eventually won the 2010 Conference USA Tournament Championship.

Mason marks the second of three players drafted off the 2011 Marshall squad that was not selected by a MLB team out of high school.

June 7, 2011

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Left-handed pitcher Mike Mason was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 23^rd round with the 714^th overall pick on day two of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft. 

Mason joins fellow southpaw Greg Williams on the Rangers draft board in 2011 and marks the third Thundering Herd player drafted by an American League West squad thus far.  Rhett Stafford was picked by the Oakland Athletics a round prior to Mason.

Mason served as the Saturday starter for Marshall over the past two seasons and produced a breakout year in 2011.  The lefty finished his junior campaign with an even 3-3 record, firing a team-best 78.1 innings with 65 strikeouts.  He surpassed the 100-strikeout plateau for his career and collected 157 over the past three years with the Herd.

The lefty collected four quality starts as a junior, including a dominating performance against Houston.  In the no decision, the Maumee, Ohio native tied a career-high with 7.1 innings, giving up two earned runs, while fanning eight and not walking a batter.  Last season, Mason fanned ten batters against Southern Miss, which eventually won the 2010 Conference USA Tournament Championship.

Mason marks the second of three players drafted off the 2011 Marshall squad that was not selected by a MLB team out of high school.